I am typing this with shakey hands still and tears flowing down my face after the most horrific experience of my life.

On Saturday, 24th June, my hubby, myself and our two westies, Bungle and Bonnie, went on our first holiday break for years. We booked Lapwing Cottage in the Scottish Borders as we love long walks and peace and quiet. This was advertised as dog friendly accomodation and looked lovely. It was a cottage made from the outbuildings on a farm. It wasn't a farm in the ordinary sense of the word but they had lots of thoroughbred, BIG, horses.)

The owner told us that the property was completely fenced in so the dogs couldn't go anywhere if they wanted a run. Well our two are city dogs and are always on lead, albeit on extending leads. Bungle, the 7 year old westie made friends with the collie on the farm, though at times he tried to get too friendly if you know what I mean.

We were planning on a trip to Kielder Water yesterday so hubby opened the door to put the sat nav in the car only to find the collie outside. (We did have problems with their dog pooh on the doorstep every morning . Bungle saw him and ran between hubbies legs to have a chase.

We ran everywhere trying to catch her then we saw her run, without having to duck, under a farm gate. I ran in only to see 6 or 7 huge horses in the far corner. One horse saw Bungle and charged up the field at her, followed by the other horses. Poor Bungle ran in absolute fear from them but the leader caught up with her and I watched in horror and screaming as he reared up and started to stomp on her. I was beside myself and for the rest of my days I will have that memory torturing me. The owner was in the paddock just standing there until I screamed at him to get the horses out of the paddock.

My hubby is terrified of horses but he crawled between all of the horses who had surrounded Bungle who by now had rolled over in submission. Bungle ran to the corner of the paddock and laid there and i thought she was dead or dying. We got her straight back to the cottage into a warm bath as she was covered in mud and manure and there were perfect footprints all down her spine. My hubby cleaned her off to see if her skin was broke then we wrapped her in a warm towel while we gathered all our stuff to get her home to our vets.

Bearing in mind we were in the middle of nowhere, the roads were just tracks across fields that we had to get out every 2 minutes to open and close farm gates. Once we hit the main road we broke all speed limits to get her home.

We rushed her straight to the vet where we found no broken bones but severe bruising. Luckily the ground was soft and the horses were not shoed or else the vet said she would be dead. She was given a morphine injection to help with the pain.

I spent the whole night going over the picture of her little body bouncing under the hooves of the horse. He targeted her and even though she ran away in fear, she couldn't outrun him.

I cannot get that image out of my mind and I don't think I ever will.

I had to post this to warn others that just because a place is advertised as dog friendly, please don't presume it is also dog safe. If Bungle had been the kind of terrier that chased horses she would have been killed.

I am so angry that precautions were not taken to ensure that small dogs could not get under the gate. She didn't even have to duck to get under it, it was so far off the ground.

I have to stop now because I am too distressed but I just wanted to warn people to be careful.

I cannot believe it but the lady owner of the cottage has emailed me, not to ask how Bungle is but to tell us off for washing her in the bath and for leaving 2 cups in the sink

I am disgusted beyond words at the lack of concern.

I cannot stop thinking about that horse rearing up and clubbing her after she curled up in the grass in fear. Her little body was just bouncing in the air. I have given up counting the times I have burst into tears today.

I left nice feedback in the visitors book but also left a note about the dog pooh on the steps each morning and pooh all over the courtyard from her two collies. The fridge didn't work, only 2 rings of the cooker worked, and the kettle kept cutting off before it boiled. I didn't want to put anything negative in the book.

She emailed back to say she had had to go away for family matters on the day I arrived and unfortunately her husband hated to clear up dog pooh! She also admitted that he was a useless maintenance man.

I didn't pay £400 for a week to hear this. Not once did she ask how Bungle was which is what is irking me the most. She apologised for the little "mishap" with our dog. I swear if I had her in front of me now I would punch her face in.

I replied that in future she should get her "useless" maintenance man to put wire at the bottom of the paddock gate so other little dogs could not get in with the horses.

Bungle never saw the horses. She just thought it was a great game running around the grass. When she finally saw the big stallion running towards her she tried to run way but then curled up in the grass when he started stomping on her.

Just please, if anybody holidays by horses, make sure that your dog cannot gain access. I wouldn't want anybody else to witness what we did yesterday.

I do sympathise....we took a “dog friendly” holiday some years ago. We were told they kept one field securely fenced and empty so that visitors had somewhere to run their dogs. It was securely fenced....with barbed wire with sheep in the next field!

How awful. I hope you are able to get those images out of your head soon and feel better. People just don't think.

I turned up once at holiday accommodation in the dark and was met by the lovely, friendly owner of the property. She insisted I let my dogs have a run around off their leads saying it was all safe. I refused, saying that I prefer to see for myself what is around. The next morning I went outside to find several fields of sheep that were fenced in with wire strand fencing which my dogs would have found easy to get through - one of my dogs would have chased the sheep for sure. There was also a field with similar fencing containing a couple of horses - one of my dogs hated horses and would have chased them for sure.

I pointed all of this out to the property owner the next morning. She told me that she had had an incident the previous week with a dog who'd gone in with her horses and wouldn't come out again. Weird that she hadn't thought to suggest new visitors be more careful due to the livestock nearby and lack of secure fencing.

I studied in that area for 5 years and didn't once return to that particular accommodation even though they were very dog friendly. I reckoned that the people were too careless.

On more than one occasion we have gone to holiday cottages advertised as suitable for dogs - and found that the gardens have holes in the fences, quite big enough for dogs to disappear through and then get out on to the road. I have learned to ask a lot more questions before booking.